I need my planner … like … yesterday …
Good thing it shipped and should get here Saturday!! Woohoo!!
I’m hoping it has a good layout to keep track of short term and long term house goals/projects. While I’m on the subject of office supplies, have you tried this pen? It is amazing. I need it in every color imaginable! It doesn’t bleed. And it doesn’t have that super black, shiny finish.
I’m making some progress on my office. A few weekends ago, I went through everything in that room that we didn’t need (old hampers, boxes of clothes we hadn’t unpacked in almost 2 years, etc). So while it is still a crazy mess, it is a crazy mess of things that actually BELONG in that room – they just need to be organized.
I get to resume office organization/decoration this weekend. Most of my inspiration comes from Emily of Jones Design Company. I love her office. Here are a few shots:
I really like the chalkboard accent wall – Brandon isn’t so fond of chalkboard walls.
I love her walls. LOVE THEM.
What a dreamy closet – so organized. I have a large closet in my office, so I’ll be using it for storage. Hopefully I can organize it this nicely.
The plans this weekend include:
1) transforming my cheap Target bookcases by painting and adding crown molding and bead board wall paper to the back
I’m going to use my chalkpaint recipe again since the bookcases are laminate and cannot be sanded. I picked up a vanilla colored paint from Lowe’s this weekend.
2) If I’m feeling REALLY ambitious, I’ll start painting the walls. I picked out a color at Lowe’s and can’t remember the name, but it is similar to Behr’s Ashwood or Mocha Accent:
.. and then I’ll use the left over vanilla color from my bookcases to paint the accent design that Emily has done – here is her awesome tutorial!
3) start organizing! I have a ton of bins and boxes and shelf space. I just need to put things in them and label them. If you are looking for affordable boxes, IKEA has a ton. I got a few of these guys below. While they took a lot more effort to assemble than I expected, I’m happy with them.
4) Hang my rail and corkboard above my desk.
I’m undecided on what to do with my desk. It’s this Shabby Chic desk from Target. One of the very first things I bought when I got my “real” job and my first “real” apartment. Right now, I’m thinking light gray. That will probably change after I get the bookcases done and the walls painted.
Phew. Is it Friday yet?
reason 1:
Our conversation yesterday went a little something like this-
Me: So if I get bored this weekend and decide to paint my office, is that okay?
Brandon: Um sure why not?
YESSSS!!!
reason 2:
This email I got today –
Woohooo!!! Sounds like a good date to me : ) He’s headed up to Ithaca, NY for the Finger Lakes Wine Festival this weekend. I’m bummed I can’t go, as it would be a long haul for the dogs and our dog-sitter is in Africa right now. So it will be a weekend of “crafty diy-ing” as he would say. And I have nooooo problem with that!!
I recently saw a burlap upholstered headboard on Pinterest and I was sold:
I don’t know where it came from, as the link to it doesn’t work. But I found more on google!
(I’m not sold on the buttons or tufting)
(did you notice the burlap ottoman thing at the bottom of that picture? love that too!)
(the burlap skirt and curtains might be overkill…)
Here’s a great tutorial by Sherry and John. Now I just need to learn how to use a jigsaw and I’m golden!
I apologize for the lack of blogging – it was a fun-filled, emotional weekend. My sister is majoring in Environmental Science at GMU and signed up for a study abroad in Senegal. Long story short, she was the only one that applied so they ended up creating an internship just for her! She left Saturday afternoon so my mom came up and we spent a couple of days together.
It’s just the two of us and we are really close to our mom – look how sad she looks!
But I think she’s settling in well… she’s posted tons of cool pictures:
After we dropped her off, we couldn’t let a day in Fairfax County go to waste, so we went shopping around Reston (where I used to work and live – I miss it soooo much!!). I could spend hours in Anthropologie – but when I look at the prices, then I realize why there are so many Pinterest DIY’s floating around on how to make everything in there for cheaper.
Their displays are amazing…
Wrap burlap/linen over canvas? Genius idea…
If I were rich, I’d buy all of these knobs and find something to do with them… and I’d have three ceramic strawberry baskets on my kitchen counter.
I’m going to use this as inspiration to make these flowers myself.
In other news, here is my attempt to create a cream-tinted mason jar, I failed miserably. But once I lit it – I actually kind of liked it. I’m going to try a different method this weekend.
And last, but certainly not least, I had a successful Marshalls trip. I saw this shower curtain a few months back and REALLY regret not buying it so I always look in hopes that they might have another one. Unfortunately, they didn’t but I did find these little gems. I’ve been searching for small, shallow ceramic bowls (like the kind you put soy sauce in for sushi) at a decent price to put in the little drawers of my new dresser for earrings, rings, etc. These are perfect – I got 3 for my dresser and 2 more for my desk!
Was that a long enough of a post for you? Phew. This weekend should be good – it’s wide open so I’ll be working on painting my bookcases and adding crown molding along the tops as well as trying out a few of Emily’s fabric flower tutorials. Happy Tuesday!
When I began my endless google searches of “china cabinet make-over,” I came across project after project that used Chalk Paint. Where does one get Chalk Paint? Is this something I can find at Home Depot?
Nope….
The brand is Annie Sloan Paints and Waxes – I fell in love with her product just by the design of the label on the cans:
So simple and organic looking.
Annie Sloan actually sounds like a pretty neat lady. She lives and works in Oxford, England with her husband David who runs the business with her. She was born in Australia to a Scottish father and a Fijian mother and came to England to a farming life in Kent when she was ten years old. You can read more about her here, but it is said that she may be the reason for the “painted furniture” trend. She’s painted nearly her whole life and written all kinds of books.
As cool as she is …. I’m not paying $35 for a quart of paint. Sorry ’bout it. After some research – I found a lot of DIY’ers who have made their own. (Hey, I’m sure Annie started somewhere, right?) Recipes range from mixing calcium to grout to plaster of paris into paint in order to get the matte finish and the benefit of skipping the sanding step.
Plaster of Paris seemed most accessible and my Jo Ann’s coupon made it cheap. I mixed up 1 part of p-of-p and 1 part hot water and mixed until all p-of-p was dissolved. I then added 3 parts latex satin paint (I used Behr in Mountain Ridge without the added primer). It went on like a dream!
The paint dries fairly quickly so I applied one coat, waited an hour or so and then applied a second coat. I let everything dry a couple of days and then rubbed on some wax to help protect the paint. Use this stuff by Minwax. You should be able to find it at any Home Depot.
I’m not lying when I say this paint is great. That recipe, if mixed well, doesn’t leave clumps or streaks and goes on really well. Now I want to paint every piece of wood furniture in my house! Here are some projects around the blogosphere that used various homemade chalk paint recipes:
I’ll post more when I get some free time (this week at work is a little crazy)… but we had a very productive weekend. Here is a sneak peek…
We hung up a pot rack:
I rearranged the shelving in my closet and added my latest IKEA purchase to help organize my clothes:
I created some fun jewelry organizers (which can also be seen above):
I made this chair more comfortable and cute. It will go in my office/craft room, which I spent a TON of time cleaning out and you can barely tell : (
We bought laminate for the basement/man cave. Hauling 26 boxes in the heat was not fun, but I’m glad I’m not one of the people buying a generator because the storm Friday night knocked out their power for at least a week…
Our third bedroom is rather embarrassing at the moment. I will spare the pictures until the makeover is finished. It became a dumping room for clothes, decorations, furniture and unpacked boxes after we moved in. After we got back from the honeymoon, I stashed all of my wedding “stuff” in there too. Piles of fabric and tissue paper, mason jars, table numbers, etc.
My plan is to clean it out, organize it and make it my craft room/office. Here are some pictures of inspiration:
I love IKEA’s hanging system – you can install a rack and they have all kinds of accessories to hang. I like the metal and ceramic caddy’s that could hold anything from pens and markers and scissors to fresh flowers!
Given the space I have, I’m thinking that two bookcases on either side of my desk will work out well, kind of like what Kate of Centsational Girl has done. It will give me plenty of storage space for the massive amounts of supplies and craft items I have:
Above my desk, in addition to the IKEA hanging caddy’s, I want a corkboard for inspiration. Either above that or somewhere in the room, I’d love to incorporate this fun DIY from mintlovesocialclub:
Here’s the image in my head right now…
As far as colors go, I’m thinking peach, cream and gray. I love this tray:
I want a wall like this in my office so bad I can’t stand it. Brandon would kill me if I did it. Oh well…
We need a bar-ish piece of furniture for this space (ignore the cluttered shelf-ladder-thing):
Maybe some kind of sideboard or “occasional table.” The image I have in my head is sort of a open-dresser-turned-bar kinda thing… here are some pictures I’ve found for inspiration while I try to figure out what I want to do:
as always, click the images for their source!
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